


Normality is Subjective

by happiestpanda



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Mind Meld, Truth, Truth Serum, Truth Spells, ask me to add anything else, truth potion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-01 17:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15778380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happiestpanda/pseuds/happiestpanda
Summary: The Voltron crew lands on a trading planet when they run into some fun tech that goes awry due to human error. Enjoy!





	1. Here we go

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, be nice, i've only ever been a fanfic connoisseur and never to write one- until today! Tell me if it sucks or if you like it. Maybe i'll continue. Also soz the pov is literally everywhere and i know that the characters are a little ooc but as you do
> 
> EDIT: I finally got around to fixing so many clerical errors and so now that it's actually readable, Enjoy.

The day started as any other- pretty normal. 

Or as normal as it can be when you’re a paladin of Voltron. Keith’s new normal consisted of fighting off the Galra empire and defending the universe from their terror. Some days, when there was little else to do but travel the team would just hang out around the massive castle ship; the last remaining relic of the Alteans. 

Occasionally, the team would need to stop by trading planets to replenish food or just have an off day to really explore and become one with the rest of the universe. Today was one of those semi-not-so-normal days wherein they would plan to visit a nearby planet by the name of Eridania, a simple environment with peaceful inhabitants making ends meet by selling to interstellar travellers like themselves. The entire planet was basically a huge trading post. This made it the perfect stop for the crew. 

“The goal here is to restock on food and other necessities humans seem to have, and to chat with locals on any intel we can receive. However, it has been rumoured that this trading post had been known for less than legal things. Keep a constant look out for each other and yourselves.” Coran goes on to explain the familiar task of going to a new planet and not making any scenes. 

“This may be adolescent, but because of this we want everyone to at least stay with another member,” Shiro picked up where Coran trailed off. 

“Awh sick, i love the buddy system.” Lance exclaimed, blatantly interrupting Shiro’s train of thought. 

“You only like it because then you have someone to blame when you get lost.” Pidge interjects with a knowing smirk. Lance tries to respond but is cut off by Shiro in the same manner as he did seconds earlier. 

“Moving on- Allura, and I will take care of the shopping business but we want all of you to befriend locals, get information. It is vital that we keep our comms on at all times. Beyond that, stay safe and have fun.” Shiro said in his most fatherly voice, smiling softly. He seemed so sure of his team. 

\---

They landed not too far off from a large area filled with tents of merchants who were screaming and hawking off their goods, almost as if whoever was loudest had the best goods. 

“We will contact you all when we have collected all we need. Stay out of trouble.” Shiro ended his phrase curtly leaving no one any room to argue- as if any one would. Him and Allura walk in towards a large building so confidently it’s almost as if they’ve lived here their whole lives. Lance would kill to have an ounce of their assurance. 

Coran stayed in the ship to ensure no funny business occurs, which left them with Lance, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge. Pidge takes the lead making a beeline to where she sees shiny metal- probaly new tech she can learn from. Hunk and Lance follow hurriedly while Keith falls behind at his own pace, always one to take up the back to protect his friends even though he’d never admit it’s because he wants to keep them safe but would rather excuse it as ‘someone has got to do it’ He wished he was as trustworthy of everyone as the rest of his team. He ponders that it is probably for the best that he isn’t, else they would have been in more trouble if they all blindly trusted the public. 

They arrive at a little humble lemonade stand looking booth with small pieces of tech that just have Pidges name written on them. She easily falls into conversation with the merchant using some translation tech from the Alteans that Allura bestowed upon all of the Paladins. Hunk interjects into the conversation easily talking about the small device Pidge held delicately from the table. It was some mind-melding thing Lance didn’t know or care too much about, really so he wasn’t listening fully. His eyes wandered over to the ever-broody Keith who was vigilant in scoping out questionable characters and giving them the stick eye so as for them to not come near the team. 

“Hey man, is it physically possible for you to not intimidate every single person that just wants to come to the same booth as us?” Lance said only half kidding. Keith basically ignores him, only giving him the same look he gives to the strangers along the post. “Listen, it may work on the locals but you can’t fool me. I know you’re made of caramel on the inside- you don’t scare me,”

“...Caramel?” Keith replied with bewilderment

“It’s an odd comparison but it got that snotty look off of your face. I was afraid it was going to freeze that way if you held it too long.” 

“I-” Keith was about to answer when Hunk pulled Lance by the collar over towards the merchant man. Keith thinks he heard his name at some point but can’t remember. Keith follows closer to the booth now intrigued with Lance being physically forced into the conversation. 

“He has been my guinea pig for so many inventions, man. This thing looks super legit so let’s see how it works…” Hunk and the merchant start attaching this, _thing_ to Lance’s head, he doesn’t seem too bothered by it, as if this is a stunt Hunk pulls on the regular. Keith is horrified at how complacent Lance is with unknown technology being strapped to his head to invade his brain and perhaps give out vital secrets of Voltron. He may also just be worried about Lance, but the other stuff sounded way better. Keith jumps in half-screaming, the opposite of not causing a scene. 

“What the actual fuck, Hunk.” Incredulous, he looks at Hunk and damn near shoved the merchant to the ground to get him away from Lance. “Do you even know what this is? How do you know this guy doesn’t work for the Galra? You could be giving out secret information.” Keith wildly gestures while trying to talk sense into Hunk. At this point, Pidge moved on to the merchant’s other items; obviously disinterested with the piece on Lance’s head and Keith’s yelling. 

“Woah, dude chill out.” He waves a hand motioning for Keith to quiet down and starts to whisper, “At best these people are half a step above Earth tech. They can’t get past memories, so as long as Lance doesn’t think of ground breaking intel, nobody will know. His name is Baras, and he is super cool. You would know that if you were listening and not scaring the locals for no reason.”

“See? That’s what i was saying.” Lance finishes helping the merchant, apparently named Baras steady after Keith maybe a little dramatically pushed him. “Although, maybe you could tell me what this is before it gets on my head?” He says this so nonchalantly, as if there was nothing totally wild about him being strapped into a foreign object.

Hunk laughed out loud. “Nah, you just have to trust me. It’ll be way better if you don't know.” Hunk continues putting the weird dots on Lance’s head while Baras went over to converse with Pidge about the thing she just picked up. The piece was almost like something on Earth, Keith had seen them in hospitals before but never cared enough to learn the name. He was still utterly and completely suspicious of the tech but decided to let Hunk handle it as he probably knew more than Keith gave him credit for. Hunk lets out an affirmative noise at he finishes the application and presses what seemed to be a button on the back of lances head. “This is gonna be so cool,” Hunk exclaims. 

Words spill out of Lance’s mouth almost rushed and definitely not the same tone as he usually speaks, “Hunk is so lucky to have such a willing friend like me. Fuck, he needs to make me some good food after this because it feels really weird.” Hunk claps his hands excitedly, Keith’s face drops as he realizes what the device actually does. 

“So what is it supposed to do exactly?” Lance says in his normal tone. Normal, Keith almost has to laugh at that word because this situation is the opposite of normal. Oh what he would give for a slice of normalcy, just for one day. “Oh my god Keith looks so fucking funny but, like, why is he looking at me like that and why is Hunk so excited? Is it like a visual invention that i can’t see?” There’s that tone again. 

This is gonna be a long day, Keith finally decides. He reaches up to pull at the cord connecting the dots along Lance’s head, feeling over the novelty of the gadget almost instantly, “Okay that’s enough fun for the day.” Baras Couldn’t get there in time as Keith removes a single dot from Lance’s head before exclaiming “No!”

Baras gives Keith some comeuppance as he pushed his the same way he did earlier and rushed says “You cannot take it off without deactivating it. God knows what kind of issue that would cause. Don’t you know how delicate the mind is, boy?!” Pidge lifts her head to finally notice what her friends were fiddling with. 

“I wish i knew what the fuck is going on but it looks like the bandits are incoming at 6 O’clock and no one seems to care,” Lance says almost unknowing. That’d be a good word for how he keeps saying things. Like their meant for just himself to hear. Fuck- it finally clicks or Keith as to what the device does. It reads Lance’s every thought. Keith would say more about Lance not having many thoughts in the first place but now is not the time as Lance has called it- there were bandits and they were here pillage. 

Baras collects what he can in his hands before bolting. Keith calls after him- “How do you turn it off then?” Baras didn’t look like he knew where he was going but he knew he was going as far as possible which meant Keith either had to dash for him now or never see him again. 

Keith starts to bolt after him but hesitates not wanting to go against orders- being alone but he also didn’t want to leave Hunk and Pidge to fight the bandits. Who knew how helpful Lance would be with that stupid looking thing on his head. Hunk calls over the commotion, “Take Lance to Baras, I have no idea how to take it off we didn’t get that far in the demo.” and pushes Lance in Keith’s direction. “Pidge and I can take these guys.” There really wasn’t time to argue. Baras being a slimy snake looking person is pretty fast and they’d have a hard enough time keeping up as is. Keith grabs Lance by the wrist and pulls him towards the path Baras took. 

“Okay now i have no idea what’s going on. The invention must be really subtle if i still can’t see what’s up with it- oh Keith i see you like handling guys rough, kinda hot if i do say so myself.” Lances tone obviously running for his inner dialogue. Keith's face breaks out in red. Lance has a puzzled look on his face for a second before it clicks. Sudden realization covers his face as he clutches his mouth with his hand.

“We don’t have time for this.” Keith decides, still red in the face and continues pulling Lance along the way as he can hear a battle erupting in their wake. 

Lance tugs away, yet Keith doesn’t release his grip. “We can’t leave them to fight alone!” 

“So you want to be stuck with your inner monologue calling me hot for the rest of your life?” Keith doesn’t wait for an answer as he continues pulling Lance down the alleyway.


	2. oh no

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Realization hits that maybe Lance should have stayed inside today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes i know that none of the characters would curse this much but to be fair they are teens and also its me coming out in my writing i suppose. Enjoy!

Lance could feel his lungs burning. He contemplates that maybe he should train more because this Baras guys was fast. Keith seemed fine but had a stony broody face- as per usual he guesses. He couldn’t tell if Keith was joking when he made the remark about not wanting to be called hot. Who knows. All he knows now is that they need to focus if they are going to find this dude. They may or may not have lost him like two corners back but they’re still sprinting with no direction. Lance heaves and finally pulls Keith to a stop

“What are you doing?!?!” Keith seethed. “If we want to catch him we need to go!”

“We obviously lost him Keith and sprinting for our lives isn’t going to make that not true.” Lance said still catching his breath, “If we’re going to find him we need a plan- not just running ourselves ragged.”

“And what is this brilliant plan???” Keith snaps as he starts to pant lightly after having stopped.

“God, he’s so cute when he’s a bitch. Also so hot when he’s out of breath.” There goes his tone again. Keith’s expression turns pink as he can see the heat rise up Keith’s face but Lance isn’t sure why. He may have said his thoughts aloud again but he sure doesn't know. This device seems to choose when it blurts out his private thoughts. It's either highly advanced to know when he's thinking something embarrassing or it's simply a work in progress that just has bad timing. He returns to normal, “I don’t know, get intel? There’s not that many people on this tiny planet and someone has to know of a snake person named Baras. If not, we can just take the damned thing off, it doesn’t seem _that_ important.”

Keith gawked, it’s almost as if Lance didn’t hear him get yelled at vehemently by Baras. Keith shook his head almost like he was trying to forget what Lance said. “Whatever, let’s start looking.” They travel throughout the part of the post that isn’t mid-robbery. For now, his main focus was to get Keith to stop looking like he had a stick up his ass and he feared the only way to do that was by finding the ever-elusive Baras. They get pointed in almost a wild goose chase it seems for a while. Just when they think they have a reliable lead, their comms crackle to life.

“Hey team, we just finished the shopping. Meet at the castle in 10.” Shiro promptly states as if that wouldn’t be a problem. And it wouldn’t be a problem if this was a fucking normal trip. But it never is.

Wobbly in tone, Keith decides to be the one to break the bad news, “Hey uh Shiro, that normally would not be an issue but,” Keith trails off to listen to Lance blurt out his innermost thoughts.

“Oh my god, Shiro is so assertive but in like a hot way. _Way_ too old for me, but if things were different,” Keith winces- hard. He almost cringes into himself. What would he have done if this fucking contraption got stuck on his head? The world would surely end. If they didn’t find this guy, Lance would either be spilling his guts for the rest of eternity and Keith was not sure he could mentally handle the idea of that right now. 

“Keith? Sorry you cut out for a second. What is the issue?” Shiro asks worried in tone.

“Uh, yeah so we were gaining intel, and then Hunk attached this hunk of junk to Lance’s head and he’s for some reason compelled to expose his inner dialogue and i don’t know about you, but i think Lance talks too much as is without having to hear his every thought as well.” Keith finishes almost out of breath at the thought of having Lance go around calling people hot just because he’s lonely and can’t help it.

“That was incredibly irresponsible of you, Hunk. But why can’t he just take off the device?”

“Well when i tried to do that the vendor said that the mind is delicate and he doesn’t know what will happen if we don’t remove it properly so our plan was to find the guy and like have him take it off.”

“Well what did he look like?” Keith explained what the snake man named Baras looked like and they decided that they would go in their predetermined teams to continue looking.

“So like Keith, i know this is weird but like can you tell me when i say something that’s weird? Maybe i just need to be aware of what i’m saying then can like, manually filter it?” Lance said halfheartedly. “I don't know, maybe that’s stupid.” Lance just really didn’t want Keith to know something he wasn’t willing to share so Keith could hold it over his head. Yeah, they’re friends now but they still have the whole rival shtick. If he confessed to still sleeping with a teddy bear or something of that caliber to Keith he may not hear the end of it, whether it be serious or jokingly. Oh and god forbid, what if he confessed- he decides to stop there just in case all of this topples out of his mouth without warning.

“Uh, hey man you were saying that you would to confess to something and then you just stopped? Like i know it was your inner dialogue but i thought you should know.” Keith smiles lopsidedly “Also what’s your teddy bears name?”

FUCK. Lance needed to have better control of everything before this shit happened. “Not like you care, but he’s named Tiger.” His name is actually Cuddle Bug but that’d be lame to admit.

“Well you and Cuddle Bug need to get your ass in gear so i can stop hearing your every thought.” Lance sighed, trying to rid every thought from his mind. They continued on with the reliable source they got before Shiro’s call to action. Luckily for everyone, it seemed to be positive. They walked through the door of a ran-down shack. You’d imagine that for a trading post they would be able to afford decent housing, but nothing is perfect. It was obviously unlocked because the door could be kicked down by an 8 year old, there really was no point. Everything seemed half built and flimsy as if this is only meant for temporary inhabitants.

“Oh i wasn’t expecting visitors, let me put on some tea- oh no,” Baras started as he turned around.

“Hey, hi, hello, we’re the guys from the marketplace. Maybe you remember us? You blessed me with announcing every thought i have then left before telling us how to remove it.” Lance attempts his best guilt tripping face, as learned from his mom, the absolute champion of guilt tripping. Like, if there were an Olympic sport based around it she would bring Cuba the gold just about every year. Every four years? Lance isn’t sure, he never really bothered with the Olympics. Keith was behind him giving his best intimidating probably-could-kill-you-with-it look.

“What a wonderful mother you must have; The disassembly is pretty straight forward actually. You just hit the- oh, that’s where it is and you should be good to go,” Lance rolls his eyes at the remark against his mother and the snake man just presses the same button as before and simply removes the head gear.

“Then why did you tell me i was doing it wrong?” Keith is obviously upset because he had to cross half the planet for something to be done in two seconds.

“Well, first you didn’t press the button to unlink the thoughts from the Mind Machine, don’t mind the name, it’s in progress.”

“Dude your face is gonna be in progress if you don't answer the question, please,” Lance can’t hold back empty threats because he just wants to be- oh there’s that word again. Normal.

“Well, here’s the tricky part. Since your boyfriend” Keith choked on his tongue, “pulled off one of your spots, one part of your brain will still spill out from time to time. Lucky for you, this has happened before. It sounds like a folktale but the only way to reverse the whole thing is to reveal your biggest truth.

“What the FUCK.” He knew this came out of his mouth and he wanted it to. Lance was fucking exhausted. Reveal his biggest truth? One, what does that even mean, two, if he meant his crush there was a better chance for a snowball in hell frozen over.

“Lance, that’s not how the idiom goes, but whatever." He turned abruptly to the inventor who seemed a little _too_ okay with how this situation was turning. "So what do you mean reveal his biggest truth?” Keith was now trying to be the rational one since Lance had more or less fallen off of the patience wagon.

“Well if it was the first thing to come to his mind, i’d say his crush would be it. Honestly who knows though the ID is such a dark and scary place that no one knows much about it,” Baras’ voice stayed as calm as ever. Lance is wondering how a failed experiment fucking with someone’s life wasn’t ground breaking to the snake man.

“So you go and make a fucking device it pull it out of a person's head? Yeah, okay. Fuck you.” Keith was over playing nice today. He didn’t want to hear who Lance’s crush was. Yeah, he’d openly called him hot today, but he also called Shiro hot so who knows. Keith knows he’s conventionally attractive, he’s the generic bad boy in a boy band. He isn’t sure who this alleged crush is, but Keith wasn’t ready to handle it. “Whatever, is that the only thing he can do?” Little hope was left in Keith but he’d like to ask.

“Well i suppose you could just let him live with this new train of dialogue,” He says with a knowing smirk. Dude, fuck that guy.

“I guess we’re out of here then, bye,” Lance just wanted to go to sleep, partly because he was exhausted and partly because then he won’t open his mouth in his sleep. Lance could snore loud enough to move mountains but never was a sleep talker.

They stormed out both agitated at the task at hand. Who was he supposed to tell this truth to? It wasn’t very specific. Folk magic is not only stupid, but also dumb. If he could tell his confession to Hunk, would that work? That’d be far less mortifying than to his- person’s- face. Fuck censoring his own thoughts was exhausting. Keith is ignoring him from what he can see, just looking at the pavement in front of him as they walk toward the castle ship. He gets on the comm “Bad news or good news first?”

“Let’s go with bad news.” Hunk replied out of breath. Did they run a marathon? _Oh my god,_ they left Hunk and Pidge to fend off bandits alone.

“Did you guys take out the bandits?” Lance asked entirely worried.

“Bandits?” Shiro is obviously out of the loop.

“Yeah, no thanks to you guys. I'll do anything to get you not speaking your truths every second.” Pidge was more sassy than upset. She also said the same phrase. Weird, maybe she knew the whole time and just didn’t tell us?  
“To be entirely fair, you didn’t ask and i had no idea where you guys were going.” Fuck, he needs to stop thinking while on the comm. Also, he was supposed to be speaking his thoughts less he thought? This brain shit is wild. 

“Anyway,” Keith butts in. Thank god he can control his thoughts and knows just about as much as he does. “There is no, like, actual solution, but the good news is that we took off the device without further problems. There’s a weird share your biggest truth cure but it sounds like bullshit, so we may have to just wait it out or something.”

“Well, to be entirely fair, it’s been a long day and it sounds like your guys’ problem. We will head back to the castle and discuss more inside.” Shiro finishes.

Fuck.


	3. end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They figure out how to dis-spell the effects

With every passing second, Lance is having another break down. Dear fuck, of course this had to happen. He steps in tandem with Keith who is now all business and heading straight for the castle ship. Honestly, the straightest thing he’s ever done

“Fucking w o w. That was rude.” Keith is appalled and halts at Lance’s accidental remark. Yeah, right he can’t think things anymore, be careful. “What made that come to mind and also how the fuck did you know that? I’ve told no one.”

“I am genuinely sorry man, uh but to be fair i got it from your impeccable fashion choices. Greatest hits being the cropped jacket and fingerless gloves. Just impractical enough to be a fashion statement. Not that that’s the only thing, but like also you just kinda give off that vibe and now that i’m saying it out loud, i recognize how rude it sounds.” Fuck he needs to be careful about saying shit in the first place then he wouldn’t have to walk through this minefield of words. “But i am totally right and you just confirmed it.” He finishes with a mocking smile. Just because it’s a sensitive subject doesn't mean he can’t try and joke his way out of it.

“Oh, like you’re all Straight™ yourself Mr. Body cream and lotion routine that can never be missed.” Ouch, he’s got him there. Not that that’s a definitive feature of being 'a Gay' but it says something. “Not to mention you blatantly called me hot earlier today.” Keith smirks. He totally got him. Lance automatically blushes to the tips of his ears.

“You’re so mean! You know i can’t help it!” Lance gawks. He can’t believe he said that out loud. “Wait shit does that mean-”

“The thing about Shiro? Yeah. Do you just go after everything that moves?”

“Uhm i have high standards, i’ll have you know and i can’t imagine you would say no to someone who looks like Shiro without all of the familial background you have with him.”

“I mean- i guess so” Keith is blushing. This is so not the day he expected.

“Hey do we wanna make things less mortifying for me and play a game of truth or dare to make me speak my truth so i can at least win?”

“I’d say take that up with Pidge and/or Hunk. I have a paperback with my name on it the second we get aboard that ship.”

Lance stops and looks Keith directly in the eyes “No dude, you gotta be there.”

Okay vague, but Keith thought maybe it’s just Lance being weird again. He’s been roped into a thousand games of random things by similar vague circumstances so he thought better than to argue too much.

They make it to the ship, it looked like Hunk and Pidge had seen better days but overall pretty unscathed. They look like they had been there for a while. Shiro and Allura looked like they had just arrived with bags in hand.

“I’m going to sleep, someone please put this stuff away. And i don't mean wait for Allura to do it. I mean someone do it.” Said Shiro, stern as always. He walked off dragging his feet. Gee, wonder what happened to them?

“It’s best to let it be, Lance. However, i will be in the control room with Coran from now on should anyone need me.” Allura said.

“Okay, so I’ve decided that for team bonding we will be playing truth or dare.” Lance exclaimed loudly to the four remaining.

“I mean, i guess. But like, why?” Hunk had a seemingly simple question, but Lance didn’t want to answer. He couldn’t just say “because i need to stop speaking everything i think and the only way to do that is to admit that i have a big gay crush on Keith” like, that was stupid.

Lance realizes he’s a Big Dumb Idiot. Keith looked entirely shell-shocked. It’s almost as if he could poke his wide eye with his finger and he wouldn’t move. Shaken to the core.

“And on that note, i think me and Hunk are going to call it a night,” Pidge is always so gracious and reads rooms so well. Unlike Hunk.

“But-” Hunk starts but Pidge leans in to whisper, “don’t worry we can watch from the doorway and hear what they have to say tomorrow,” Hunk gives a quiet thumbs up as Pidge pushes him out of the room.

It is at this point Keith starts nonsensical babble. “But- what- maybe- uh- but, like- wha- w h a t.”

“Boy, that sure wasn’t how i thought that would go down at all but leave it to the antics of Voltron and our stupid run-ins with alien tech to ruin a perfectly fine confession.” Lance is mostly annoyed. But all he can really focus on how utterly embarrassing it was to blurt out something so personal without his consent. Also Keith looking not angry but rather sputtering. Pretty cute honestly.

Keith gathers himself finally and without any warning reaches his hand to cradle Lance’s face a little too roughly and gives him a sloppy awkward kiss on the mouth. As it progresses though they see that there’s a learning curve and both get better once they indulge in each other. “Me too.” Was all Keith could manage to get out.

God he was so hot

“Thanks,” Keith says abruptly.

“Fuck, you can still hear me?!”

“No, but i’m pretty good at guessing.”

This time Lance leans in and lingers just before their mouths meet then he gives in to all urges he’s ever felt in the past. Suddenly it’s just them. A normal couple inside of a castle ship. You can only be so normal, Lance thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading my first fan fic, i know the whole idea of the mind machine thing doesnt make a damn lick of sense but it is what it is. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
